Should I Toon In? Teen Titans Go!

It’s time once again for another edition of “Should I Toon In?” Teen Titans on Cartoon Network was honestly one of my favorite cartoons of that era. It had strong likeable characters, great humor and great action. Sadly after 5 seasons the show came to a close but at least it left with one amazing two-part climax. However this episode isn’t about THAT Teen Titans. If it was I’d tell you to go out and watch it right now. Nope, this episode is about the new spinoff/reimagining of Teen Titans, Teen Titans Go. How does this one compare to it’s original? Let’s find out shall we?

Teen Titans Go is a comedy cartoon based off the original series. There’s quite a few differences between this series and the original. First the episodes are no longer 30 minutes long but instead the show is broken up into two 15 minute shorts. The art style is way different as well. Now the characters are drawn more cartoony and the show focuses more on wacky situations, slapstick, and humor. The titans aren’t after some mystery villain or fighting epic battles against “The Brain.” No, their adventure are slightly more odd than that.

Here, to give you an example I’ll give a brief synopsys of the first 15 minute the first episode I saw was called “Legendary Sandwich”. Raven wants some alone time to watch My Little Pony (not really called that but the implication is clear). However she is interrupted by Beast Boy, Cyborg and Robin eating lunch. Raven claims she knows of a legendary Sandwich of power. Not one to resist food or a challenge the three guys, along with Starfire, go on a quest to collect the four ingreidents of legend. Cyborg goes after the Mystical Bacon from a deadly volcano, Beast Boy after the King’s Lettuce hidden miles underground, Starfire after the Stellar Tomato, and Robin the Pretzel Bread from the local supermarket where he has to fend off boredom.

Another episode found Beast Boy working at Mother Mae Eye’s pie shop so he can earn money for Cyborg’s birthday present. Yet another episode had Raven’s father Trigon come visit Titan Tower. And still another episode had Robin try to earn his Driver License back. None of these episodes have any of the action or depth of the original series. They’re nothing but wacky slapstick and bizzare humor. And truth be told, they’re absolutely funny as all hell.

I hear many fans of the original show complaining that this isn’t the show they grew up loving. They’re right, its NOT the show they grew up loving. It is however a loving parody of the show they enjoyed with the same likable characters. Also, unlike other send ups of shows of my childhood like the Inspector Gadget movie, this doens’t insult the orginal material, it just plays off it in a wacky manner. The characters are the same ones you loved but now all of their traits are more exaggerated. Beast Boy is more of a slacker, “Sometimes I just paint an animal green and use it as my replacement in battles so I can come back here and chill out.” Robin: “That actually explains a lot.” Speaking of, Robin is more high strung and enthusiastic. Cyborg is more energetic and emotional. Raven’s dark personality is the crux of many personality jokes, and Starfire… well… Starfire is basically the Starefire. She was wacky enough in the original series.

The art of the show is cartoony but when viewed in High Definition it’s absolutely beautiful. It’s almost as if they took the art of the original series and the chibi-forms of the original series and mated them up. The end result is that the colors are vibrant and the characters are, quite frankly, adorable without becoming disgustingly cute and yet still completely recognizable.

Best of all, it’s actually funny! For me, the humor works, and works really well. I found myself laughing at many of the gags and quips. For instance, when the gang finds out that Robin had his license revoked Cyborg and Beastboy laugh and tease him and then Starfire laughs and cracks out the line: “Laughing at your shortcomings makes us all feel better about ourselves!”. The consequences of Trigon’s visit was also hilarious, in particular the gifts he gave the young heroes. There are too many funny moments for me to list here and I honestly wouldn’t want to ruin them on you.

So to answer the final question, “Should I Toon In?” that’s a big yes! That is with the caveat that you know what your getting into. Don’t look for a continuation of the old series. Don’t get me wrong, I would have loved more seasons of it too, but if you can get past that, there’s a lot of fun and humor to be had here. As always thank you for reading and you can email me at You can email me at SuperfriendEd@Gmail.com Until next time, all I have left to say is, “TEEN TITANS, GO!!!!”

Ed is a jack of all trades; a master chef, a corny-joke teller, and Nintendo Game Master (kinda like Captain N). Ed contributes a number of columns to SuperfriendsUniverse.com such as his hugely popular food review column The Laidback Gourmet, the detailed Atari retrospective 2600 Reasons To Play, cartoon analysis on Should I Toon In?, as well as star in the video game review podcast Pixels and Bits.

About Mr. Eddie

Ed is a jack of all trades; a master chef, a corny-joke teller, and Nintendo Game Master (kinda like Captain N). Ed contributes a number of columns to SuperfriendsUniverse.com such as his hugely popular food review column The Laidback Gourmet, the detailed Atari retrospective 2600 Reasons To Play, cartoon analysis on Should I Toon In?, as well as star in the video game review podcast Pixels and Bits.